Tennis roundup: Rublev sweeps past Ruud to win Bastad title; maiden titles for Zheng Qinwen, Cachin

Russian Andrey Rublev on Sunday won his second title of the season at Bastad with a straight sets win over top seed Casper Ruud.

The second seed won through 7-6 (7/3), 6-0 against the Norwegian world number four for his 14th career title and second this season after the Monte Carlo Masters in April.

After a tight first set Rublev, 25, took control of the tie, winning 80 percent of his first-serve points to seal victory after one hour 33 minutes.

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Despite being a clay-court specialist with nine of his ten titles, including Bastad in 2021, on the surface, Ruud was unable to find a solution to the power of Rublev’s game.

China’s Zheng Qinwen wins maiden WTA title

China’s Zheng Qinwen captured her first WTA title on Sunday with a three-sets victory over Jasmine Paolini of Italy in the Palermo clay-court final.

The 20-year-old Zheng, ranked at 26 in the world, came through 6-4, 1-6, 6-1 against her 52nd-ranked opponent, registering her 20th match win of the year.

It was Zheng’s second career final after finishing runner-up in Tokyo last year.

She becomes the 11th Chinese woman to win a WTA singles title and second in 2023 after Zhu Lin triumphed at Hua Hin in Thailand in February.

“I won my first WTA match here and also my first WTA title, but you probably don’t know that I won my first ITF championship in Italy,” said Zheng, whose three-hour semi-final win over Mayar Sherif of Egypt only ended in the early hours of Sunday.

“This is really special for me. This is my first WTA 250 championship. I will remember that.”

The 27-year-old Paolini was playing her fourth three-set match of the week, having already knocked out top seed Daria Kasatkina in the quarter-finals.

The effort took its toll as Zheng stretched to a 5-1 lead in the decider before claiming victory on a third match point.

Cachin wins maiden title in Gstaad

Argentine Pedro Cachin held his nerve to win his first ATP title in Gstaad on Sunday, beating Spaniard Albert Ramos-Vinolas in three sets.

The 28-year-old won through 3-6, 6-0, 7-5 in a clay-court battle which lasted two hours 23 minutes in the Swiss resort.

Cachin had not dropped a set in his run to the final, ousting top seed Roberto Bautista Agut in the second round.

On Sunday, Ramos-Vinolas struggled after the first set, calling for courtside treatment for blisters.

The 2019 Gstaad winner failed to win a game in the second set, but despite rallying in the third set missed a chance to lift a fifth career title at the age of 35 years.

“In the beginning of the match I was a little nervous and made a few mistakes,” said Cachin who climbs to a career-high 49 in the world rankings.

“It was the first time I had played against a lefty in the tournament but I stayed there.

“I tried to be positive, more aggressive and go to the net. In a final it is difficult to play like this the whole match. I am very, very happy.”

Mannarino downs Michelsen in Newport for third ATP title

French veteran Adrian Mannarino ended Alex Michelsen’s dream run in Newport Sunday, beating the 18-year-old American 6-2, 6-4 to capture the third ATP title of his career.

Mannarino, ranked 38th in the world and seeded second in the grass court tournament in Rhode Island, continued his strong season on the surface that included reaching the final in Mallorca and the quarter-finals at Queen’s Club in London and ‘s-Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands.

The 35-year-old out-foxed Michelsen, who was trying to become the fourth teenager to win an ATP title this year.

Mannarino gained the key break against the increasingly frustrated American in the ninth game of the second set, when Michelsen was able to save a pair of break points with second-serve winners but also produced two untimely double faults before putting a forehand into the net on break point.

Mannarino then coolly served out the match, building a 40-0 lead and putting it away on his second match point after one hour and 22 minutes.

Michelsen arrived in Newport ranked 190th in the world after his first title on the lower-rung Challenger circuit in Chicago last week.

But he’d never won a tour-level match until he beat defending champion Maxime Cressy in the first round.

Coming off a semi-final win over four-time Newport champion John Isner, Michelsen started brightly, holding his first two service games at love before Mannarino put together back-to-back breaks to take a 5-2 lead and pocketed the first set after 27 minutes.

Michelsen gained a quick advantage with his first break of Mannarino’s serve in the second game of the second set, but Mannarino promptly broke back and allowed his young opponent few opportunities from there.

World number 246 Timofeeva wins Budapest WTA title

Teenage lucky loser Maria Timofeeva from Russia won the Budapest WTA title on Sunday by defeating Ukraine’s Kateryna Baindl in a three-set final.

The 19-year-old Timofeeva, ranked at a lowly 246 in the world, came through 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 over her 100th-ranked opponent.

The teenager almost missed this week’s main draw entirely, having fallen in the final qualifying round last weekend.

But Timofeeva got a second chance and becomes the first lucky loser to win a WTA Tour title since 15-year-old Coco Gauff in 2019 at Linz.

“This is all very new to me, and it feels like a dream, because normally I shouldn’t be here, but here I am,” said Timofeeva.

It has been 22 years since a player won a singles title in their main draw debut.

Before Timofeeva, the most recent player to pull off that feat was Indonesia’s Angelique Widjaja, at Bali in 2001.

Other women who won the title in their first WTA main draw appearance include Tracy Austin (1977 in Portland) and Justine Henin (1999 at Antwerp).